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We are proud to present Scripts Spotlight: Live Readings, 9 June 2014 at the White Bear Theatre.
Scripts Spotlight | Podcast Catalogue
On 9 June 2014, we will be hosting the quarterly Live Readings as part of our Scripts Spotlight series. We are delighted to be able to announce the two scripts that will be showcased at this event:
Live and Unplugged by Yasmine Van Wilt
A work in development by award-winning playwright, singer-songwriter and actress Yasmine Van Wilt.
Kassia by Ioli Andreadi
A monologue from acclaimed theatre practitioner Ioli Andreadi
YASMINE VAN WILT
Yasmine Van Wilt
Yasmine is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Her 2012 track Amazing reached 7 in the UK Music Week Charts (as alter ego Elle ‘A’). In 2012 she was also staged as part of the Women’s International Playwrighting Conference. In 2013, she received two EU grants & ample funding for staging & production of her work. In 2014, she will release films, books, plays and songs. She has a label contract with ACA music; her recordings are scheduled to reach national radios in 2014-15.
IOLI ANDREADI
Ioli Andreadi
Ioli Andreadi is a playwright and theatre director who specialises in devising, adaptations of ancient drama and new writing. She trained at the Greek Art Theatre Drama School, studied Theatre Studies (University of Athens), Cultural Management (MA, Panteion University) and Directing (MA, RADA and King’s College London). She has received the 3rd Greek State Award for New Playwright 2005 and a Fulbright grant for Artists 2010/11 (New York Musical Theatre Festival). She has contributed to the leading Greek actress’s Katia Gerou’s book on acting “When the heartbeats change; Discussions on theatre with Ioli Andreadi” (2010). She is a founding member of the World Wide Lab, member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab and holds a PhD from King’s College London as an Alexander S. Onassis Foundation grantee.
LIVE AND UNPLUGGED BY YASMINE VAN WILT
On April 20th 2010, the BP drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and injuring 100; millions of barrels of oil leaked out over the ensuing months, devastating wildlife, damaging the Gulf’s fishing and tourism trade, and contaminating nearly 500 miles of coastline across Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Inspired by the testimonies of over 100 BP Oil Disaster survivors, JEu Productions dramatise the terrible effects the oil spill has had on Louisiana. A fierce criticism of corporate power, this play, disguised as a live music performance, explores the destructive impact of the petrochemical industry on the environment and people.
Yasmine Van Wilt records under her own name and also performs a variety of different alter egos, including Antoinette LaFontaine and Elle ‘A’. As Elle ‘A’ she released the track Amazing last year which reached no. 7 on UK Upfront and Commercial music charts. It has been on more than 20 global networks including Sky TV, Box TV and Lifestyle TV, has been on the radio in more than 30 countries, and has more than 560,000 hits on YouTube. A mockumentary film featuring this character is presently in pre-production.
Live and Unplugged originally stemmed from Elle ‘A’ Live and Unplugged which previewed at the Shaw Theatre in August 2012 before opening at the Södra Teatern that same month. The play was an official selection in the 2012 Women Playwrights International Conference hosted by Riksteatern. It was then performed at the Hospital Club in London in October 2012. The play incorporates excerpts from Yasmine Van Wilt’s We’re Gonna Make You Whole published by Oberon Books. Yasmine’s self-titled new album will be released this summer. It features many of the songs from this production.
“Yasmine Van Wilt once again takes her talents towards humanising and personalising the largest environmental disaster in US history-the BP oil spill of 2010. While most of the media have long since left the story, casualties continue to mount and theulf Coast region remains debilitated. Van Wilt, thankfully, has taken it upon herself to continue to remind us of the heartfelt consequences of BP’s policies in the Gulf of Mexico, and what those policies are costing humanity and the planet. Don’t know anyone affected by BP’s Gulf of Mexico catastrophe? You will after you see this play.”
Dahr Jamail – Producer, Public Liberties and Human Rights Department, Al Jazeera English
Melina Theocharidou was the originating dramaturge and director of the 2012 and 2013 productions of Live and Unplugged.
Script and music written and performed by Yasmine Van Wilt
Produced and developed by JEu Productions
KASSIA BY IOLI ANDREADI
Kassia. The woman who acts despite her times. The great poet who dares to beg for her love and to turn her most secret passions into icons, during a time when the icon is persecuted.
Byzantium, during the Iconoclasm. The Emperor Theophilus is looking for a wife. He falls for Kassia, he marries Theodora. A few years later, Kassia is a nun. She writes a hymn. The hymn that Mary Magdalene addresses to Christ. Theophilus visits her at the monastery. She hides. He discovers her hymn and adds the last phrase.
A monologue about loves that live in the dark and religious writing as an act of love. A play about the fear of transparent desire.
Co-directors: Ioli Andreadi and Andy Dickinson
Starring: Emmanuela Lia (check out Emmanuela’s showreel here)
